@Plasma Positions Exit Safety is a Flexible Core Scaling Feature.
Plasma does not consider exit safety as a second-best feature of scaling. Its architecture presupposes that off-chain execution may fail in a way of censorship, downtime or withholding of data and it is designed to be aware of that fact at the beginning.
Implementation is decentralized to lower the load on Ethereum, though the ownership can be enforced on Ethereum at any time. The base layer anchoring the funds to the base layer exists in the form of protocol-defined exits, challenge periods and proofs of fraud. In the event of unreliability in execution, the system makes no attempt to maintain liveness in an artificial way. It lets the users get out and reclaim value instead.
That will render scaling a matter of survivability and no longer just of availability. The constant implementation works well in healthy conditions, but at no time could it be guaranteed against the ownership.
The design of the plasma entails a conspicuous tradeoff where fewer promises are made with regards to uptime in favor of superior guarantees with regards to fund recovery.
Scaling is successful in Plasma since failure is not ignored.
